Shanghai (CNS) -- The popularity of Singapore as a destination for Chinese migrants is growing, with about 500,000 to 600,000 Chinese applicants approved in the past two decades. The number accounts for 10 to 12 percent of the city-state's total population, announced researcher Zhuang Guotu on November 29.
Zhuang is Dean at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Xiamen University and a consultant at the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council (OCAO).
He outlined the progress his research team has made studying the distribution status of and development trends in Chinese migration, during the second official forum on the issue of overseas Chinese sponsored by OCAO.
The past 30 years have seen a decline in the Singapore birth rate and a drop in the native population, said Zhuang. In order to balance the country's ethnic structure and develop its hi-tech industry, the Singaporean government adopted a national strategy to stimulate the inflow of highly-educated migrants. They have lured 1.64 million so far, mainly from the Chinese mainland and Malaysia.
Since 1990 when China and Singapore established bilateral ties, Chinese migrants have been heading to the prosperous island. The steadily rising rate of Chinese migrants to Singapore has accelerated sharply in recent years, added Zhuang.
He divided the migrants into four groups: hi-tech talents and students, normal technology migrants, investment migrants, and labor migrants. Chinese migration cases for marriage reason or lacking legal documents, or people entering as self-employed persons, were also noted.
Zhuang predicted an expansion in Singapore's strategies to welcome more Chinese, based on the government's 2030 blueprint to house a population of about 6.5 million and maintain the ratio of Chinese Singaporeans at around 75%, which implies an inflow of 1.2 million from China.
